


Anser me This

by Babykitsune9



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fem Peter Parker - Freeform, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony, dad tony, injured peter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-03-09 17:46:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 20,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18921979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9
Summary: the link to my ebay store if anyone wants to look up anything.https://www.ebay.com/usr/423raven24.432





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the link to my ebay store if anyone wants to look up anything.
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/usr/423raven24.432

It was two years and three months after the Avengers had split- when the burner phone that Steve had sent to Tony in the same package as his shield, was first used. It had been a nice day in Wakanda, Bucky had been successfully deprogramed. And was now more like his old former self than Steve had seen him be in a long, long time.

Bucky was with Steve when he got Tony's nearly hysterical/frantic call consisting of a little more than cursing and a 'hi how are you'. In fact most of what Tony blabbed about on the phone, in Steve's ear sounded a lot like word vomit. Really distressed, really rushed, damned near hysterical babbling, word vomit.

As far as Steve knew only one person in the world, aside from Bruce, would ever call him sounding this distressed. And that would be Tony. Though why the man had decided to call him now after two long goddamned years, was beyond him. But despite how things had turned out between him it wasn't as if he hated the man enough to actually hang up on him.

Word vomit or not. Friends were friends.

So he sat down someplace comfy and simply listened to Tony's rushed, almost hysterical babbling.

Apparently his friend was on his way to the hospital, someone was injured, someone else was dead, he and Pepper had broken up, and he was thinking about adopting someone else's kid. Steve frowned as he listened to the man babble before he took a deep breath and sobbed in Steve's ear that he wished he and the others would just come home.

And he knew that Steve would never leave Bucky so he should bring him along. No tricks. Nothing. He had had the past two years to look deep inside of himself and realize that Steve had been right about Bucky and the fact that he hadn't been himself when he had murdered his parents.

Steve wasn't exactly sure what to think once he heard this. The man was kind of relieved that it had taken Tony this long to admit that he was wrong and ask him to come back home, and be on the team again. And bring Bucky with him.

And then right before Tony hung up, he said as calmly- well as calmly and someone near hysteria could muster, anyways, "Besides, I need you and your bestie to be here to play godfather's to my kid since Bruce outright refused on the grounds of the kid sometimes annoys him and he doesn't want an actual reason to smash her."

Once the line went dead and Steve had a moment to process everything that Tony had said, he looked down at his phone for a moment and then looked up at Bucky whom had apparently come looking for him sometime while he had been distracted and seated himself next to him to listen in out of curiosity.

His expression bewildered as he asked, "Did you hear-"

"Yeah." Bucky replied in a gentle tone. His expression unusually somber.

Swallowing past the sudden lump in his throat, Bucky asked him what he wanted to do. Making Steve frown as he mulled everything over for several seconds before deciding to call Bruce and Pepper and see what was going on with Tony.

He had a long talk with both.

And it was decided that once he spoke to the others, then he and whoever else was up to it- would all return home.

 

New York-

Tony had been sitting in the waiting room outside of the ER with Vision, Rhodey, Pepper and Happy for the past four hours awaiting any news of May Parker and her niece. The kid. Or more accurately put, his kid.

The two had been out late this evening to celebrate his kid's sixteenth birthday when they were blindsided by a drunk driver just a half block from their home. The vehicle that had hit them, hit them with enough force to flip their car several times before it slammed into a telephone poll and snapped it in half before finally coming to a complete stop.

The kid had suffered non life threatening injuries to her eyes, a head wound from attempting to prevent injury to May, several bruised ribs, and a fractured wrist.

May however wasn't quite so lucky. When Tony had got the alert from the kid's phone, he had dropped everything he'd been working on and been there in under three minutes. But when he had gotten there, May hadn't been breathing and it was almost twenty minutes before the paramedics had reached the accident and pulled the two to safety.

He had been allowed to take the kid ahead only because her injuries were non life threatening. However the sight of May staring lifelessly at him while the medics had attempted to bring her back, was just a bit too much for him.

Scrubbing his face with his hands, he then dropped them and then let his head fall forward as he heaved a tired sigh.  
The moment that he had gotten the kid to the local hospital, some of the doctors form the ER had met him at the door. Ready to take the kid from him.

And from what little bit he had overheard as they were taking her back, she'd not only suffered a nasty gnash along her skull, but some glass had gotten into her eyes and damaged them. And not more than ten minutes after he had brought in the kid, May was brought in.  
They had still been trying to resuscitate her.

But they had finally given in and called the time of death a little over two hours ago.

Which had caused him to panic and call Pepper and Happy and tell them to grab the emergency adoption papers that he'd spoken to May about just in case the event of something happening to her occurred. May had thought it a little bit of a stretch to simply go from the kid being an intern to being his adopted daughter in the span of minutes.

But he had kindly pointed out that because of the kid's occupation as Spiderman- that horrible shit had a way of happening to good people. He had even pointed out repeatedly that if any of the kids enemies ever found out her name and connection to May, they might just murder her to get to the kid.

It had taken some really, really stressful negotiations on his part. Honestly May had a kind of death grip on the kid that was simply mind boggling. And nothing short of telling her that he wasn't going to let the kid become an orphan again and get lost in the foster care system- had impressed upon the woman just how bad things could really get if anything ever happened to her.

So upon getting his call, Pepper and Happy had collected the papers (and Rhodey since he'd been present) and then come straight to the hospital where he had signed the adoption papers and then had Happy run them to the lawyer's office to be filed.  
By the time he knew what was going on with the kid in the next hour/few hours, he'd be a dad.

Oh god he was a dad!

For once in his life he didn't know what to do. He'd never imagined himself as the fatherly type. Hell for the most part he could barely stand kids. But for some reason he had an unnatural soft spot when it came to his kid. So much so that he'd given up sleeping around, drinking and his damnedable wild parties.

She was simply so innately good that it was hard to not to want to be a better person because of her. He knew that she looked up to him, and the moment that he had decided to talk to May about the emergency adoption papers- he had given up those things so that he could be the kind of man that was actually deserving of the kid's admiration.

He wanted to make her feel at home with him. Safe even.

He kept an eye on her and everything that she did. They worked together every week and he even had her spend the night with him a few times so that he could get a good feel for her taste in furniture, clothing, music, books, DVD's, ect.- and had created one of the many, many empty rooms in his home into a bedroom fit for a princess.

He'd even bought her aqua, light purple and pastel pink satin sheets for her bed on a funny little whim knowing that she'd freak out in that adorably comical way of hers, about them.

He'd planned and planned for well over a year, painstakingly selecting only the best of everything for her.

But he never would have imagined in a million years that he would be putting it to use so damned soon... He was already taking care of the details for May's funeral, Pepper had her tablet out and was randomly asking about what kind of coffin, flowers and so on May might have liked.

Every question felt like an actual physical blow to his body, making his heart ache and feel as if he'd had the breath knocked out of him. It was so unimaginably painful that he had to do this. Especially on the kid's behalf, but then she was still very young.

And had already experienced more than her fair share of tragedies in her short life.

Sensing rather than hearing one of the doctors as he approached, Tony tensed up and looked up- hoping to god that the man would walk by him and go tell some other person something about their family or friend. However that wasn't to be, the doctor came to a stand still right in front of him and removed the mask that he'd been wearing over his face as he said, "Mr. Stark, are you responsible for the Parker kid?"

  
Tony felt positively ancient as he replied that yes, he was now responsible for the kid. The doc merely nodded and began to tell him that his kid was okay, however, she was as of now- partially blind due to both the glass she'd had in her eyes as well as the fact that the head wound that she'd suffered had caused her optic nerves in both eyes to become damaged as well.

The doctor didn't know if it was permanent. At the moment he had only a vague idea of the kid's actual 'visional' condition. He mentioned that most people who suffered partial blindness usually suffered it in one of several ways. And she had only woken up briefly to mention that she couldn't really see. Only make out vague shapes and shadows.

Tony said nothing, despite how horrified he was.

Really what could he say, the kid had just lost her aunt, gained a new father, and was now blind... And there was nothing that he could do or say at the moment that would remotely be of help. So instead he merely nodded his head in acknowledgement of everything that he had been told while silently grieving for the many losses his girl had suffered this evening as he slowly began to plan accordingly.


	2. Chapter 2

The moment that he got the green light from the doc, Tony was up and quickly navigating the hospital hallways to Mya's room so that he could see the kid for himself. He at least needed some sort of physical and visual assurance that she was, generally, in one piece and was at least comfortable enough to be resting well.

The moment that he reached her room, and slipped inside and saw her lying on the narrow, uncomfortable, little hospital bed- he broke down and started crying.

She was so still, and pale. Her eyes were wrapped in gauze, there were several looking nasty cuts and bruises on her arms, on her face- some of which had needed to be stitched closed. There was an IV with several bags of fluid attached to one of her arms. Wiping his face with one hand, he took a moment to try and compose himself.

Reminding himself that he needed to be strong for her.

Because she would try to be strong when she shouldn't. He would tell her this. That it was okay for her to be scared, uncertain of her future, and even saddened by the loss of her aunt. But that by no means meant that she should bottle anything up like he knew she would likely attempt to do.

Moving further into the room, he grabbed the chair against the wall and placed it next to the bed and dropped himself down into it and then hesitantly took her small hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. Uncertain of what else he should do at the moment, he tried to think.  
But anticipating the needs of an injured, enhanced teenage girl was incredibly difficult.

Should he stay put for now and see what happens? Should he send Happy out to buy flowers, and maybe a stuffed toy or two for comfort's sake? Or would she require comfort foods?

Her favorite ice cream maybe?

Actually he'd hold off on the ice cream for now. She might want some later once she was conscious and more aware of the fact that she was now his adopted daughter. As well as the reasons behind why since he very much doubted that anyone had bothered to tell her that her aunt was dead when she had woken up before.

Which meant that he had to be the bearer of the unbearable news. Those unbelievable bastards.

This of course, caused him to panic and to pull out his cell and call the number from the burner phone that Steve had sent to him barely a week after he and the others had left. The call was meant more as a means to calm and center himself than to really talk about anything.  
And yet the second that Steve had picked up he had simply gone off. Almost like a gun.

He quickly spoke his jumbled mess of word vomit to Steve and then sometime around when he got to the why of the call, as well as began babbling about Mya and May, the accident, the hospital- did he say how much the doctors here were bastards already? He'd started crying again.

All while Steve sat silently at the other end of the line and listened.

Once he was finished calming himself enough, he hung up the phone and then refocused on his girl. His poor, poor girl... Reaching out absently, Tony gently brushed her long dark curls away from her face. His hand just grazing her skin enough for him to realize that she was warmer than normal.

His heart hammered in his chest as alarm rose up to rear it's ugly head yet again as he pressed his palm against her skin and muttered a foul oath as he immediately went for the call button to alert the nurses that something was wrong.

"I can't believe this happened." Happy said from his seat next to Rhodey. His head was down and his eyes were red rimmed from crying as he slowly said, "Poor Mya. She's going to be devastated!"

Now he may not have known May Parker personally, but from the way the kid had always spoken about her- it was as if the woman had hung the stars in the heavens. She had loved her so much.

And now May was gone.

And on his watch no less. He knew that he should have called Mya earlier to wish her a happy birthday. Maybe if he had, and had taken his job as the kid's 'handler' more seriously, May might still be alive and Mya... Mya wouldn't be injured and possibly blind for the rest of her life.

"Happy, this isn't your fault man. Things like this happen to people everyday. There's no warning, no way to stop it, and no reason to beat yourself up for something that you didn't do. I say we save the beating for the guy who actually deserves it." Rhodey said as calmly as he could.

He'd gotten to know Tony's kid pretty well since the whole Germany thing two years ago. In fact Tony had told him that she was the one who had helped him come up with the braces that he used to walk. And several months ago, she had come up with a way to make the cumbersome piece of equipment, smaller, and more easy to handle.

In fact from what Tony had told him about the new brace made it sound as if it would help him walk again normally after a specific amount of time. Which was beyond...phenomenal.

He had told Tony that once the braces were finished that he wanted to test them. He had been hard pressed to hide his excitement the next time he had seen Mya. The poor girl had been terrified that he was trying to kill her or something after he had tackled her to the floor in a bone crushing (for normal people, anyways) hug.

They'd been almost as good as friends as he and Tony were ever since.

Pepper looked up from her tablet, her expression solemn as she asked, "W-what kind of flowers did Tony say May liked again?" She was having a hard time focusing on the details of May's funeral. She couldn't stop thinking about Mya officially being an orphan now. In fact thinking about it was somewhat terrifying.

She kept running 'what if' scenario's in her mind.

What if Tony couldn't give Mya what she needed, physically and emotionally? After all, he'd never been a father before. He could barely stand children. The smaller ones freaked him out.

And then there was the fact that Mya would be depressed upon learning of her aunt. Tony didn't handle depression well. In fact when it came to depression he barely functioned at all.

And what if she got so depressed that she did something stupid to hurt herself? Would Tony be okay with putting her on a suicide watch? She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she almost missed Happy replying to her earlier question.

"Blue hydrenga's, bachelor buttons, sunflowers, red tulips, white tiger lilies, pink roses and lavender." Suddenly snapping out of her funk, Pepper muttered a tired sounding 'thanks' and continued planning May's funeral.


	3. Chapter 3

Tony anxiously shifted on his feet as he watched the doctor that had worked on Mya earlier in the ER carefully examined each and every scratch and cut she had in an effort to find the cause of her fever before finally sighing and moving back form the bed as he said, "Well her temp hasn't been caused by any inflammation or infection..."

"Then what's causing it?" Tony asked as his heart squeezed painfully in his chest. As far as he knew the kid didn't get sick. At least not like normal people did. She never had a cold or the flu after she gained her abilities so the fact that she was sick now, really, really scared him.

  
Perhaps just as much as the car accident had.

The doctor continued to examine Mya for another five minutes or so before simply saying, "It looks like she must have had the fever before the accident. The accident must have simply placed so much strain on her that her temp shot up. We'll keep monitoring her condition-"

  
"Actually, I'd like to move her to the compound's medical facility-"

"I don't think that would be a very good idea Mr. Stark." The doctor said slowly as he stared him down as if he were a bug and his word was law. But Tony didn't back down any. If anything the doc was starting to piss him off.

I mean, _how dare he_?

He knew that the doc probably thought that _not_ moving Mya was in her best interests, but then he probably hadn't figured out that she was enhanced yet. So how dare he act as if he knew what was going on with Mya or why she was sick or anything. For all he knew she may have been poisoned or something out on patrol around the city the night before.

And those reasons were exactly why Tony needed to move her.

She was an enhanced person. Once someone found out- they would begin either call the authorities or begin demanding answers to questions that were none of their business. Plus he had all the best doctors on his goddamned pay role.

All of them had access to Mya's medical files, knew her secret- hell they knew how to better care for her and her needs. So if this self important ass thought that he was leaving his girl in third rate care when they in all likelihood would fuck her up further due to their ignorance- then he had another thing coming.

"Listen, I don't give a damn whether or not you think it's a good idea. I'm moving Miss Par- er, Stark to my home upstate where I have the best doctors in the world standing by to receive her. And as her father, you will not stop me. So I suggest that you move your fat ass and get whatever papers I need to sign and get them fast. Because I'm moving my kid whether you okay it or not."

The doctor sputtered in outrage and tried to reason with Tony as he grabbed him and maneuvered him out of the kid's hospital room before all but slamming the door in his face. He understood very well that the man was just trying to do his job, and was trying to look out for his girl's best interests- however he didn't know shit about what was in her best interests and frankly, Tony intended to keep it that way.

  
Right now all Tony wanted was to have Mya at home where he could have his medical team look at her, treat her, and make her as comfortable as possible given her new situation and health status.

Moving back over to the chair he had previously been seated in, he started to sit again when he noticed that she was shivering underneath the paper thin clothing and bed sheets. Muttering something about suing the hospital for making his girl miserable underneath his breath, he quickly shrugged out of the jacket that he'd forgotten that he'd been wearing, and carefully draped it over his kid.

Watching in satisfaction as she snuggled up underneath it with a soft sigh, before he slowly seated himself again and restarted his bedside vigil until a little while later when a nurse walked in with the transfer papers.

Not long after that Tony used the hospital phone to call Happy and Pepper to make the arrangements necessary to move Mya to the compound. Once all of that was done, all he had to do was sit and wait for the nurse to come back and remove the IV and do a few other small things to prepare Mya for her transfer.

The time was nearing two in the morning now, and Tony felt more exhausted than he had ever felt in his life. Honestly he wanted to lay down somewhere and just sleep for a month. But he couldn't do that.

Not when he still had so much to do to help Mya.

For god's sake he needed to get her a cane, possibly a seeing eye animal, teach her how to read brail so that she wouldn't fall behind at school- oh god- he may have to pull her out of school and have her home schooled for a while. At least until she adjusted to her new situation.

He also needed to somehow try and train her so that she could keep going out as Spiderman because he knew- he knew deep down in his heart of hearts that his girl would never stop going out. She would never stop trying to save people. And if he didn't at least train her to better defend herself without the use of her sight- he knew that she would likely die the next time that she went out on one of her patrols.

 

Two in a half days later-

 

Everything between moving Mya to the compound was a blur to Tony. Once Mya had been safely moved to the compound, everything had moved so quickly. One of the things determined upon having his own medical team see her was that her fever definitely wasn't due to anything like an infected injury.

It had also been determined that her fever wasn't caused by anything nefarious such as poison. Instead the doctors had been able to find traces of a virus in her system. On a normal day when she wasn't injured her body would have been able to fight the virus off easily.

  
But when the accident had taken place, it had somehow weakened her superhuman immune system just enough for the virus to run rampant. However since her condition was more or less stable now, they didn't foresee the virus lingering in her system for longer than a few days. A week at the most.

Which wasn't enough to hinder her healing overly much, but it would be enough to lay her low for a little bit until she regained her strength again.

Once they were done checking her over and had assured Tony that she would be fine, one of the nurses on his staff changed her out of those...paper thin clothing that she had been placed in at the hospital, and into a set of nice, warm fuzzy mint green pajama's. After which Tony had been okayed to move her to her bedroom.

Where he had spent the last two days making himself useful as her own life sized cuddle buddy in between keeping an eye on her and working on tying up some loose ends concerning what happened to Mya and May's home, their belongings, exct.

So far he had the deed which May had been smart enough to put in Mya's name the last time she had updated her will. He had had the house cleared, the smaller items packed up, but left the furniture just in case Mya ever decided to move out of the compound and live there again in a few more years.

Or if she simply needed a break from him and the rest of the mad house.

He'd send Happy or Rhodey with her to the house as a little vacation. He was sure that they would like it. Hell he was a spoiled rich guy and he had absolutely loved it there every time he had went to visit.

Hearing Mya groan on the bed, Tony quickly dropped what he was doing (eating a nice healthy dinner after several days of nothing but an endless stream of coffee) and moved to sit poon the edge of the bed next to her as she rolled herself over and made an weak attempt to push herself up into a sitting position.

His hands moved of their own volition, reaching out and gently helping to ease her back down onto the mattress before she could hurt herself.

"Who?" Mya rasped, her voice was rough sounding from disuse, and almost sounded as if it were sore to his ears. Rubbing her back soothingly, he responded with a soft.

"Hey, kid. You're sounding a little bit rough there-"

"Mr. Stark?"

"Yeah, squirt. It's me." Tony said with a slight curve of his lips.

"Where-" Mya started to ask when he cut her off with a quickly worded response.

"You're at the compound, safe."

"What happened?" She asked, causing his smile to fade as uneasiness began to creep into his very being. He couldn't tell her. At least not yet. She wasn't done fighting off the virus. And the last thing that she needed was to exacerbate her illness with hysterical crying.

"I'm going to go get some water for you. Just sit do me a solid and lay here until I get back." He said very slowly and he began to move to get up when her hand shot out, fumbled along his arm before finally latching onto his hand- stopping him in his tracks as she asked in a panicked tone.

"W-What's wrong with my eyes?"

Closing his eyes tightly, he made a face as if he were in pain before gently taking her hand in his and re seating himself on the edge of the bed and took a moment to squeeze her hand before saying, "You were in a car accident-"

"Aunt May-" He knew what she was trying to ask, and didn't have the heart to tell her everything right now. She wasn't ready. So instead he would tell her what he could while omitting certain truths. He knew that he was putting off the inevitable. And that she would likely be very angry at him for not simply telling her.

But he knew just how badly she would take knowing. And he was trying to be kind, compassionate and merciful.

"Not now kid, let me talk- You were in a really bad car accident almost three days ago on your birthday. You got a nasty head injury, and glass in your eyes. Both injuries coupled together have caused you to go..."

"Blind?" She asked in a very small tone, sounding as frightened as a child awoken in the middle of the night by the monster underneath their bed. The tone alone tugged at his heartstrings and made him want to hold her until she felt better.

"Not totally blind," He corrected, recalling what the doctor had said. "Right now you're partially blind. Which means that you can probably see vague shapes and shadows. But little else. I'm going to get you some things to help you out while your adjusting. For the next six months or so you're going to have to be home schooled. You're going to need a cane, a seeing eye dog or something to help you get around. You're going to be living here from now on so that I can train you how to continue your whole Spiderman gig so that you don't get yourself killed patrolling without your sight."

She was quiet for several heartbeats and he started to feel an odd sense of relief that she hadn't asked about May again. But all of that went out the window when she finally said in a trembling voice, "Aunt M-May's dead, isn't she?"


	4. Chapter 4

Tony didn't say anything. Instead he merely thinned his lips and viciously thought, So much for being merciful. His girl was sometimes simply too damn smart for her own good.

Hearing her breathing begin to change, the sound a sure indication of her anxiety as she awaited his verbal response. Tony felt his heart squeeze painfully in his chest as he took in Mya's agonized expression and steeled himself for what would come next as he sat himself back down before saying very slowly, "May... May died on impact when the other vehicle slammed into your car. From what little bit I was able to find out as a non relative, the force of the impact caused her to- to hit her head really, really hard either against the window or the steering wheel. The blow shattered part of her skull, and several of the smaller pieces of bone lodged in her brain causing it to bleed.She died quick. And likely didn't suffer any. To us it would be just like going to sleep-"

Mya shook her head slowly in denial as a loud sob tore through her as she said in a hysterical tone, "No. No! _She's not dead!_ "

Tony wiped the tears that had begun falling from his eyes, away and said in a gentle tone. "I'm so sorry Mya."

" _No!_ She isn't-" As she started to deny her new reality again, Tony felt concerned with each denial his kid spouted. As if if she argued enough, it would somehow change things.

"She's dead kid. The accident killed her. I know that she was all that you had left. And you loved her more than anything, but you aren't alone and you certainly aren't the only person who misses her." He said in an even tone as he watched his girl make an attempt to scramble out of bed, only to wind up tangling herself in the bedsheets and tripping.

Jumping to his feet in alarm Tony somehow managed to catch her before she could hit the floor and hurt herself further than she already was and simply wrapped his arms around her as she started screaming.

Pepper was on the phone with Steve since he had called to give them all a heads up that he, Nat, Clint, Sam, and Bucky would be coming to the compound. He had at first thought to come to the tower in New York, but after the Avenger's had split, Tony had sold the tower.  
Deeming it too spacious for just one or two people to live in.

Of course Steve had been shocked to hear this fact, the Avenger's tower had pretty much been Tony's baby. One of the very few things that he had left of his parents exct. Still he had been understanding- if not a tad bit guilty, upon hearing the reasons behind why Tony had sold the tower.

He had been in the middle of telling her that he and the others would be there within a week when all of a sudden she heard this loud, blood curdling scream that cut off mid way and changed into an ungodly wail of despair. The sound was so sudden, that Pepper had almost dropped the phone and took off running down the hall where she knew Tony and Mya were.

Though Happy and Rhodey seemed to beat her to it.

The moment that they heard the sound, the two went tearing out of the common room as if the hounds of hell were nipping at their heels. Leaving her standing in an empty room with Steve demanding to know what the fuck that sound was. And was someone injured? Was it Tony?

She stayed quiet as the other man fired questions at a rapid pace, his alarm evident in his tone. Before he finally growled out that she better tell him something or he'd be coming to the compound within the next twelve to twenty hours, fully armed and expecting to rip someone to pieces.

Feeling as if she should say something, despite it not really being her place. She sat down on the couch and gave him what information she felt she could. Yes someone was injured. No it wasn't Tony, though he did hurt by extention. Then she had told him that the sound had likely come from Mya.

And when he had asked who the hell Mya was, she simply told him the truth.  
Mya was Tony's daughter, plain and simple. His _injured_ , blind, and defenseless, orphaned, adopted teenage daughter.

To say that Steve was in shock by the time she finished telling him what she could about Mya and what had happened, would be an understatement. He was downright shell shocked.

So much so that he couldn't seem to find anymore words in which to speak. So he simply hung up on her.

By the time Happy and Rhodey finally managed to get down the hall to check on Tony and Mya, they found Tony sitting on the floor with Mya in his lap, his arms tightly wrapped around her as she cried uncontrollably against his shoulder. Upon seeing that Tony had things well in hand and that the kid was simply upset because she had likely been told about her aunt's passing, they both hovered outside the door to the kid's room for several minutes to just watch.

The two of them wanted to be ready just in case she needed something.

Tony must have known that they were there and why, because his eyes flickered to them for a moment. His expression pained as he tried to sooth Mya's sorrow as best as he could. It took some doing, but the kid finally managed to wear herself out and was on the verge of passing out from a combination of physical and emotional exhaustion coupled with her fever.

The moment that Tony felt her go totally limp in his arms, was when he loosened his grasp on her body just enough to let her fall back a little bit over his arm so that he could study her appearance for a moment.

She really didn't look too hot at the moment.

There was blood seeping through the bandages covering the kid's eyes, and some of it was even running down her face. Using his fee hand to check her temp, he gnashed his teeth in frustration and let out a foul oath upon realizing that she had exacerbated her eye injuries and her illness by crying and carrying on.

Sighing since he knew that he'd have to call one of the doctors to come up and check on her, he carefully shifted his hold on her so that his arms went around the middle of her back and her legs and slowly got to his feet, taking her with him so that he could tuck her back into bed.

Once he had her back on the bed and began fussing with the sheets, he heard Happy's voice say from the doorway. "She looks like she needs one of the docs."

"She does. I think she just managed to make herself sicker."

"I'll call one of them then."

"Thanks Hap." Tony said tiredly as he finally finished fussing with the bedsheets.


	5. Chapter 5

Sometime after the doctor had come and gone, Tony found himself stretched out on the bed next to Mya. One of his arms being used as a pillow while the rest of him was being used as a living heater for the fevered teen whom had been shivering almost violently underneath the covers for the past hour in a half.

He'd been right about Mya exacerbating her illness and injuries earlier.

Her once low-ish temperature of one hundred. Was now a whopping one hundred and five point four degrees. Which was more than high enough for her to be bed ridden for the next...well he had already planned to keep her in bed for at least an extra week after her fever went away. So...now the plan was to hole up in her room with her for two weeks?

Maybe force feed her ice cream and chicken soup until she was totally better?

Her eye injuries, while bad enough to warrant some extra concern when the doctor had come to check her over, had also been a little bit worse than before due to her crying. Apparently the salt from her tears had caused swelling and irritation in the still raw and healing damaged tissue.

 _Who knew that crying could be so harmful_ , He thought sarcastically to himself as he pulled Mya's shivering form a tab bit closer to his chest and tugged the slipping sheets up over her a little bit more firmly only for her to whimper and start squirming in his grasp in discomfort.

  
Sighing, he let her move around some until she found a position and spot that was comfortable to her before she finally seemed to settle down some. He stayed close, just letting his mind drift as she somehow managed to sleep restlessly for a bit before her shivering and whimpering finally died down to practically nothing.

"Friday, scan Mya. Check her current temp." Tony ordered his AI softly so as not to disturb the girl sleeping curled up on her side next to him.

_"Mya's current temp is one hundred and four point seven and holding."_

"Cool, cool. Do me a favor and turn the heat up a little bit in here. Let's see if we can't help our girl sweat out that damned virus a little bit faster."

_"Sure thing boss."_

"Thanks Friday." Tony said as his eyes began to close. He didn't know if he actually managed to drift off for a bit or not. On one hand he hadn't slept since the day of the accident. So he was understandably extremely tired. But on the other, he was trying to stay awake and take care of Mya and her needs.

Still, he knew that time had managed to get away form him for a little bit when he finally opened his eyes again. Mainly because the room was practically pitch black with the exception of the few nightlights scattered around every corner in the room that were mostly for maneuvering purposes since he knew how treacherous walking around in the dark- especially in his home- could be.

He'd once fallen asleep in his lab during a block wide power outage and had damned near killed himself ten times over when he had woken up in the dark and made a insane attempt to leave to go to his actual bedroom to finish sleeping. He'd stepped on numerous pieces of glass and metal, tripped over Dumm-E and damn near sliced his face open with a really, really sharp screw driver.

So he knew how dangerous his home could be in the dark.

Which is why he got the nightlights for Mya's room. He'd known how accident prone she was as an awkward teen, now all his efforts to help had somewhat- thus far- been rendered moot.

He _hated_ that. He truly did.

If he's known Mya would be rendered blind a year ago, he simply wouldn't have bothered with the nightlights. Though he still found them useful to a small degree. Huffing softly, he shifted ever so slightly where he lay so that he was semi leaning over Mya and took a moment to check her temp with his hand before gently muttering, "My poor girl." As he used his fingertips to brush her long hair away from her face before then pressing his lips against her forehead and then slowly pushed himself upright so that he could climb out of her bed.

He couldn't really recall the last time that he had eaten something. And since he'd already had his nap for the next few days, he felt that it was time to go and tackle that so that he didn't wind up getting ill himself.

Especially since he'd be no good to Mya nor anyone else if he got sick himself.

Quietly slipping from the bedroom Tony made his way to the common room down the hall and upon entering the room, found his three besties sitting around watching TV. Well, okay, Happy and Rhodey were watching TV.  
Something on the discovery channel from the look of it.

Meanwhile Pepper was using Rhodey's lap as a pillow and looked to have been unconscious for a while now.

Looking away from the TV when the two finally noticed him, Happy quickly grabbed the remote and turned the tube off and asked how Mya was. Tony wasn't exactly sure what to say in response, so he simply said, "Asleep for the moment."

It may not have been the most reassuring answer in the world. But to Tony, who had watched the kid toss and turn restlessly for days- it was a small win.

"How'd she take the news?" Rhodey asked cautiously. Concern bleeding into his expression and tone, causing Tony's heart to ache for the kid anew.

"Which news?" He asked almost flippantly before he managed to stop himself. "The news about her aunt? Or the news about being blind?"

"Either. Both."

Tony scrubbed his face with his hands and heaved a great sigh before simply saying, "Not well. She's scared- no terrified. She thinks that she's alone in the world without support, or any sort of guidance. I haven't told her yet that I've signed adoption papers."

  
"Will you tell her?" Rhodey asked.

"Yeah," Tony said as he walked into the kitchen and slowly began searching it for something fast and easy that he could eat before simply saying, "But I'll have to wait until she isn't so fragile. In the meantime, we have to take care of her. She's going to be depending on all of us to help her adjust to everything without her sight and hold herself together. And steps need to be taken to also help her adjust to her new status as my daughter."

"You worried that she'll turn into a little diva once she finds out or something?" Happy asked.

"Mya? A diva? Hardly," Tony scoffed as he pulled out some stuff to make himself a sandwich. "The kid doesn't have what it takes to be that much of a pain in the ass. Nah, I'm more worried about what the press and everyone else will pull on her in an effort to get close to me. The kid has better judgement than most her age, but right now she's vulnerable. Far more vulnerable than normal. Gold diggers, assholes, and villains looking to get close to me will use that vulnerability to try and get into my good graces."

Someone let out a low whistle before Happy said, "She'll need bodyguards when she's out in public."

Tony didn't miss a beat before saying fiercely, "Fuck bodyguards. She's not going anywhere outside the compound unless I, Rhodey, or you are with her. I would much prefer to have at least two of us with her at all times, at least for the next few months or so. But I know that each of our schedules don't exactly sync up. So this is what's going to happen."

"I'm going to take the next three months off of work. Any shit that needs to be done will be done here at the compound and anyone stupid enough to get near Mya during her adjustment period is going to get shot. Plain and simple. There will be no and's, if's or but's about it. And just to make sure that my point is clear, everyone who comes here for work related purposes will get one warning."

"And after that?" Rhodey asked almost stupidly.

Tony lifted his eyes from his current task just long enough to give a pointed glare in his direction causing the man to put his hands up in surrender as he muttered, "Right. One warning, and then they get shot."

Happy put his hand up and hesitantly asked, "Um...do we all have to shoot people?"

Another pointed glare from Tony said it all.

Exchanging a slightly nervous look with Rhodey, he leaned in and whispered. "I don't know about you, but something tells me we're going to be neck deep in dead bodies and lawsuits before the end of the month."

Rhodey merely nodded his head somberly before saying, "Probably."

But they both knew that it would be worth it as long as Mya was safe, happy, healthy and whole. Tony would have it no other way. And to be perfectly honest, neither would they.


	6. Chapter 6

It took Mya five more days for her fever to finally break. And Tony would be lying if he said that he wasn't at all anxious to know how she was doing. I mean, sure he had pretty much been her sleepy buddy, and her cuddle buddy the whole time she'd been sick and out of it, but he needed to know if she was doing emotionally better. Even the tiniest bit.

  
Granted he knew that she likely wouldn't be even the slightest bit okay-ish for a long, long time. But he couldn't help but hope for the best despite his worry about her becoming depressed, suicidal, or god knew what else.

  
So here he sat, on the edge of the bed, again. He'd just gotten up to go to the bathroom when she had started to stir a little bit and he simply froze up, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of his full bladder in lieu of waiting for her to fully awaken.

  
It had been almost a week and two days since the accident, and she had been out of it long enough to begin to frighten him ten times over. Partially due to the fact that she had slept most of those days without waking and partially because she hadn't eaten anything at all for god knows how long.

  
He'd finally realized that a day or so ago when he'd been studying her face while she had slept and finally noticed how thin she looked. With her enhanced dietary needs, she should have woken up long ago to at least try and choke down some soup or something. But instead she had merely...slept.

  
Then again, there was no telling how much energy she had burned through just trying to work the virus out of her system. So she may have had a legitimate reason for all the sleeping. He didn't know.

  
All he knew was that he worried. Perhaps needlessly, perhaps not.

  
God is this what it was like being a father? If so then it was little wonder his own parents hadn't spent his childhood throttling him for his endless stream of stunts, bad behavior and illnesses.

  
Mya groaned softly and turned over onto her side and just lay there for a moment, and Tony let her seeing as she was probably confused about why everything was so dark and such. It took several moments longer than Tony thought his heart would be able to handle, but finally she rasped, "Mr. Stark?"

  
Feeling his lips curve slightly in a smile, he reached out and brushed some of her messy curls back from her cheek. Ignoring the way that she jerked, and twitched as he did so.

  
After all, in her position he'd be damned jumpy too about who or what was touching him.

  
"Hey spiderling, how are you feeling?"

  
"Wiped," Mya replied tiredly as Tony made a crooning sound as she then tacked on. "I-I feel...hungry."

  
Tony chuckled softly before saying gently, "I should imagine so. It's been almost a week since you last ate anything."

  
"Ugh...no wonder my stomach hurts."

  
"Do you want anything in particular?"

  
"Pizza, donuts, banana nut muffins topped with butter, peanut butter sandwiches, scallops and coconut shrimp with butter and honey mustard, clam chowder, chocolate brownies and a double helping of all my favorite types of sushi." Mya rattled off in a deadpan tone. Tony took a moment to listen and almost laughed aloud. None of those foods were anywhere near what he'd been expecting to hear that she wanted.

  
Well, except for the pizza anyways.

  
She happened to really like the pizza that he usually ordered them when they hung out. And she could eat three large ones all by herself before helping him put his own away. So to hear her ask for one after just being sick, was well...not exactly unusual- but it was certainly funny.

  
As for everything else she had asked for, none of the stuff was even on the food-that-he-had-expected-to-hear-her-ask-for spectrum. "That's quite a list squirt. I was thinking more along something like soup and sandwiches myself."

  
"If your trying to starve me, sure." She quipped in reply. And this time he did laugh. It was brief, but it was nice to have a reason however small to do so.

  
"Alright sweetheart, let me see what I can do." He said as he leaned over her and kissed her cheek before quickly pulling away to go scrounge up some food for her when he heard her call out to him in a small voice when he got half way to the door.

  
Curious to see what else she wanted, he turned and waited patiently for her to speak as she slowly sat up on the bed and began to fidget some before slowly saying, "A-About Aunt May..." He knew now why she had called out to him before he could disappear. And his heart twisted painfully in his chest as she slowly said, "I-I don't know how to plan a-"

  
Deciding to cut her off there so that she didn't have to talk about it, much less think about it any more, Tony simply said, "Everything has already been taken care of squirt. May had a copy of her will at the house. One of my guys found it when they were packing up the both of your personal effects to be brought here. As per her request in the will, she was cremated. And when you're feeling better, we'll hold a service and have her buried next to your uncle."

  
Mya was quiet for several heartbeats before giving him a curt nod and then quickly ducking her head so that he couldn't see her face anymore, Tony felt trapped between a rock and a hard place.

  
On one hand, his girl was wasting away here. And he would be a terrible father if he let her continue to do so. But on the other hand, she obviously needed him to give her a hug or something.

  
Dammit! _Why did he suck so bad at this?_

  
Emotional crap always tripped him up. Always. Especially when it came to girls/women. The weepy ones always scared the hell out of him. It was part of why he tried to avoid them so much. But he couldn't just up and flee from the room in abject terror. Or leave and merely pretend that he hadn't noticed the kid's mood.

  
If Pepper ever found out that he'd left the kid when she was in a state of emotional distress...well, he shuddered to think of the beating she'd give him. He knew one thing for sure though, his humiliation would be televised and people would buy tickets just for a ring side seat.

  
Finally when Tony couldn't stand just standing there looking at his kid quietly crying anymore, he made a funny little sound in the back of his throat and went back to the bed and sat down again and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side and tried to sooth her by simply babbling about some of the ideas he'd had to help her with her blindness, in an effort to distract her from her grief.

  
"Guess who gets a puppy? A nice one with big teeth and floppy ears." Tony started out, after all, nothing cheered kids up when they were down like cute little puppies. Right?

  
"Don't want a puppy." Mya said in between sobs.

  
Floundering for a moment, he tried to think of a response to her words. And simply couldn't seem to wrap his head around them. Here he had a teenage whom had never had a pet before in her life, who had a ligitimate excuse to actually get a puppy- and she didn't want one!

  
Talk about confusing.

  
"But you're going to need a nice, deceptively cute, and downright vicious puppy to help you get around and stuff." He tried to reason, more to himself than her really. Maybe the puppy thing wasn't selling because he didn't seem to sound enthusiastic enough? Should he have tried his Bozo the clown impression?

  
Hey kid! Guess who's getting a puppy! You are! Now take my kerchief and try not to freak when it doesn't end when you pull on it.

  
No. Mya hated that impression. In fact he'd tried it on her last year for Halloween. Even going so far as to rent a costume for the occasion and everything. And Mya had reacted so badly to it, that not only had Rhodey, Pepper and Happy all been shocked speechless, but Tony had been laid out on the floor cupping his nuts where she had kneed him before she had run away screaming something about 'killer clowns'.

  
"O-Okay, well if you don't want a puppy... Then maybe we can get you a service squirrel or something?"

  
"I wanna kitty..."

"Are service cats even a thing? I wasn't aware that cat's could even be trained."

"They can. Some are just more stubborn than others."

"Huh. Well you learn something new everyday. Okay, so a service kitty." Tony said more to himself than to her when she chimed in,

"Three of em."

"What?"

"Three. I want three. One Siamese. One fluffy solid black. And one grey with little T-rex front legs."

"That's...very oddly specific. Have you been scoping out cats for long?" He asked, already having a nagging suspicion about the answer being a, 'hell yes.'

"I just know where you can find some. I'm not sure how much longer they'll be available before they're taken to a shelter to be killed."

"Ah. And do these cats already have names?"

"Gale, Raphael and Stormy."

Tony raised his brow at the names and mouthed them to himself as he tried to think of how he would feel with three animals running amok in his home instead of one well trained one. The odds weren't really in his favor either way. The kid was depressed, and grieving, and had already named the damned things.

Finally after several moments of weighing the pro's and con's, Tony resigned himself to being a cat owner. But only because it had been scientifically proven that cat owners lived significantly longer lives. "Alright kid, tell me where the furballs are and I'll send Happy to go get them."

  
"Okay. But I also have pictures of them on my phone."

  
"The one that I gave you?"

  
"Yeah."

  
"Alrighty then." Tony said as he quickly reached over to the bedside table and snatched her cell from it so that he could check out the pics as she gave him their location. Once he was done, he gave her a quick squeeze and then quietly slipped away to go...prepare himself and his home for the 'furry' invasion.


	7. Chapter 7

An half hour after getting food for Mya and helping her sit up somewhere away from the bed so that she could eat, Tony left her in Pepper's capable hands so that Mya could get a shower and clean herself up a bit while her bedsheets and comforter were changed. Leaving Tony and Happy to run the wonderful errand of picking up the fur balls that Mya had wanted.

Looking at the large sized carrier sitting at his feet where the three cats were sitting, one glaring at him menacingly (or rather the Siamese was) and the other two staring at him in open curiosity.

"Okay fur balls. Here's what's going to happen, so I suggest you listen up," Tony said to the cats, watching them closely for any change in their expressions or body language. "My daughter seems to be attached to you. So your going to be her kitties, her babies, hell even her best friends with four legs- but you're also her service animals which means that you will wear collars, and harnesses, and in some case even leashes."

"You will take her where she needs to go and not where you want to go. There will be no running off, no running into traffic when she is with you. The last thing I want is to get a phone call that my kid was run over by a car because one of you had the yen to chase a leaf or an insect."

"Likewise you are also not allowed to get yourselves run over because if you do- I'll have to get her another cat to replace you. In return for your absolute obedience, you will have a wonderful health plan. Including all of your shots, being spayed and neutered-" At this point the black cat lifted his head a little bit to glare at him like his buddy the Siamese. Apparently not liking the idea of being snipped. Not that Tony cared any. He didn't want them multiplying if he could help it. Three cats he could handle, but he drew the line at a hundred of the little monsters. "You will remain dewormed, and rabies free. And get more kitty toys, affection, and wet food than any one cat should deserve in their whole lifetime. Do we have a deal?"

The cats merely stared at him. The grey one yawned, as if his little speech had bored it. The black one's ears twitched. And the Siamese...well, that one was starting to creep Tony out with it's unblinking stare.

"Okay. Good talk you three," Tony muttered before then saying to them in a sarcastic manner. "I'd have us all shake on it but something tells me that at least one of you would try to rip my hand off in retaliation." The Siamese let out a loud, rumbling growl. As if to say, 'You're damned right I'd rip your hand off', at the same exact moment that Happy let out a snort of near hysterical laughter from the front of the car.

Tony glared at the back of the man's head in irritation before snapping, "Is there a problem Happy?"

The man continued to laugh as he quickly shook his head no before finally wheezing out, "Y-You're talking to cats!"

"I'm well aware of that Happy."

"Like their people!"

Tony growled at his friend's amusement before snapping out, "Keep laughing Happy, I'll have you demoted to the kitties personal pooper scooper and liter box cleaner for the next three months." That shut Happy up. And more quickly than anything that Tony had ever said or done before too.

"You wouldn't dare." The man started before Tony cut him off.

"It's a dirty job Happy, but someone's got to do it. And the kid can't see to do it."

"That's not fair!"

"Then don't laugh at me for telling the fur balls how things are going to be!" Tony practically shouted back at Happy before the man decided to put the window that separated usually them, up. Curious to know what he was doing as the window rose, " Tony demanded, "What. Are. You. Doing?"

Happy waited until there was barely a crack left between them before he responded with, "I'm building a wall." Causing Tony's jaw to drop open in outrage.

How dare he?! Tony thought as he bared his teeth and snarled at the same exact moment the Siamese decided to lunge at him from it's carrier, startling a yelp out of him as he quickly moved back away from the cage and hissed, "And you! Loose that attitude mister!"

The trip back to the compound from that point was filled with Tony plotting a very vindictive revenge on Happy, and the growling and snarling of what apparently was a rabid animal. Seriously, he had never met such a mean and belligerent cat before. Most of the one's he'd come into contact with were hungry street cats that he'd shared food with.

And they loved him!

Almost a little bit too much if the way that they'd tried to follow him home had been any indication at all.

Finally they reached the compound, and not a moment too soon in Tony's opinion. The Siamese had initiated a staring contest with him and he needed an excuse to blink before his eyes shriveled up in his skull. Feeling the car slow and then finally stop, Tony all but jumped out of the vehicle, damned near tripping himself on his own feet in the process.

He might have actually fallen if not for the fact that someone caught him.

Feeling a strong arm slip around his middle, he was temporarily picked up before being gently set back on his feet again just in time to tip his head back and meet Steve's amused blue eyes.

"Steve!"

"Hey Tony. How's it going?" The man asked as Tony hugged him and muttered.

"A great deal better now, I think."

"Oh yes, he's much better now Steve," Happy said sarcastically as he carried the large animal carrier around the car and set it down at Tony's feet. "You should have seen him talking to these cats. In fact you can see it, I'll send you the video."

"You recorded me?!" Tony practically shouted at the man, his expression horrified. Happy merely grinned at him and sang.

"Of course. Why would I pass up the chance to get some blackmail material on you? I have some hard earned vacation time coming up and I might want a raise."

Tony growled in annoyance at him while Steve merely stood there watching the exchange curiously before shaking his head and then kneeling down to check out the cats. At first glance they weren't anything special really. But as soon as he started scratching behind ears and underneath their little chins, he knew he was wrong about his first impression.

"Hello babies, did you have a nice trip here?"

Two of them meowed cutely at him while the third merely curled up in the corner and stared at him. He smiled at them and the slowly got back to his feet before saying, "The others are waiting for us inside if you want me to carry your new friends for you, then we can go meet up with them."

"Oh my god yes," Tony said. "Please do so that that damned Siamese doesn't try to eat my hand off again."

Steve laughed as he grabbed the pet carrier and turned to go inside, not bothering to wait for Tony since he knew that the man would follow him inside as soon as he was done speaking with Happy.


	8. Chapter 8

Once inside the building, Steve helped the cats out of the carrier to let them explore a bit.

While keeping a close eye on the little grey one since it didn't seem able to move all that great due to the deformity of both of it's front legs. However after watching it try to maneuver itself with it's weird looking front legs for several minutes while waiting on Tony, the kitten finally seemed to wise up about how it was trying to move and simply started hoping away from him like a bunny rabbit.

A very weird, and oddly adorable looking wide yellow/green eyed, stubby tailed- bunny.

And of course after it got so many feet away from where he was standing, the little devil then stood on it's hind legs, looked around for a second, and then meowed loudly. Causing both the Siamese and the fluffy little black kitten to both come running back to where the grey was located.

He grinned while he watched the three felines as Tony finally walked up with Happy. The two men apparently had not wrapped up their argument just yet because he heard Tony practically muttered in an annoyed tone, "I swear that that Siamese has to be part honey badger or something."

"Oh please," Happy scoffed. "With the way that cat acted around Steve the second he started petting the others, that cat is in no way related to a honey badger. It simply doesn't like you."

Tony let out an overly dramatized gasp of outrage as Steve then heard him say, "That's it! I'm demoting you!"

"Like hell you are! I have blackmail material!"

Snorting at the two men acting like overgrown children on a playground, Steve slowly shook his head and then knelt down and carefully scooped up the three cats. Ignoring the tiny pricks of sharp claws as he then said, "As amusing as it is to watch the big kid bully the little kid here- I'm going upstairs to visit with the others."

The two stopped arguing as he stepped onto the elevator, and quickly scurried to catch the thing before the doors closed. Once inside, Steve took the little black kitten and placed it on top of Happy's head. Watching as the man stiffened slightly while the kitten peered down at him before curling up on his head with a yawn.

Tony snorted and pulled out his phone to take some pics when Steve stopped him by all but thrusting the grey kitten into his hands and watching as the two settled into a stare down, leaving him with the Siamese curled up in his arms, purring up a storm.

Upon finally reaching the floor where the others were waiting, Steve, Happy and Tony exited the elevator and slowly- well more slowly than absolutely necessary in Happy's case since the black kitten was still curled up on top of his head doing a fair impression of a fur hat, despite the purring it was doing.

Finally they reached the common room and were noticed by Clint and Sam, both of whom had been chatting with Rhodey while Pepper chatted with King T'challa. While Natasha, and Bucky both stared at Mya curiously as Tony made a beeline for the teen and only stopped a foot or so from her before reaching out and placing his hand on the nape of her neck and greeting her with a shocking, "Hello sweetheart. Here's one of your cats." Before he then handed the grey kitten off to her.

"Stormy!" The girl said excitedly as the kitten meowed several times at her and practically used it's little deformed legs to latch onto her arm as she ran her hand along it's fur. Happy was next to greet the unknown girl, handing off his furry little burden before then scampering from the room chanting.

"I'm free, I'm free!" As he disappeared. Not too long after his departure, the Siamese curled up in Steve's arms, slowly uncurled itself and jumped down to the floor and trotted over to the teen and pawed at her jean clad leg. The girl laughed and knelt down so that she could pet the Siamese too as she said,

"Hello Gale. You sound happy." The cat made a chirping sound in response and tried to crawl into her lap. Throwing her balance off a bit and causing her to fall on her bottom on the carpet laughing softly as the Siamese finally succeeded in climbing onto her lap, where it sat purring loudly. The gentle sound of the teen's laughter caused all conversation to stop and all eyes to turn in her direction.

Everyone's gaze was curious and accessing.

Shaking his head in bemusement, Steve walked over to Tony and finally asked, "So...the kid? What's the story there?" Of course Steve was well aware of the fact that everyone else had sort of migrated towards himself and Tony while Rhodey and Pepper moved to where the girl was and introduced themselves to the cats.

"It's...kind of a long story." Tony said tiredly.

"We have time," Steve said as he pulled a seat out for himself as several of the others did as well. Each one of them intent on becoming comfortable so that Tony can go through whatever version of things he wanted while still filling in the information gaps. "Just start off where you feel comfortable."

"Yeah okay, just one second-" Tony said as he cast a wary glance towards the teen before calling out, "Hey Pepper, why don't you take Mya, the kittens and the honey badger to your room and have a bit of girl time. She might like having her nails painted or something."

Pepper looked at him strangely for a moment before realizing that he was trying to get Mya out of the room before Steve and the other heard Tony explain about taking the girl to Germany to fight them before the team split, when she had been fourteen in a half, knowing that the lot of them would likely start shouting and the sound would upset her.

"Oh sure." She said as Rhodey already began to help the teen up off of the floor.

"Ton's, you don't have to send the kid off-" Steve started to say when Tony quickly silenced him with a look. It wasn't a glare, it certainly wasn't an angry or enraged look. It was more like the look a mother bear gave someone who was messing with their cup. It was a look promising pain to anyone who fucked with the kid.

And it startled Steve into submission while piquing his curiosity all the more as he heard the teen say, "I can stay-" Before Pepper wrapped an arm around her slender shoulders and whispered something to her as she led her towards the door. The black kitten, and the Siamese trotting along after them like little ducklings after their mother.

It was the damnedest thing that Tony had ever seen before in his life.

Huffing a little as he turned his focus back to Steve, he started at the beginning. The very beginning. Which took place several months before the Avenger's had split, when Tony had seen the video on YouTube of Mya stopping a speeding car with her bare hands to prevent a school bus full of kids from being hit.

He told them about his first meeting with her, threatening to tell her aunt, how she webbed him to her bedroom wall and _snarled_ at him not to tell. He told them about Germany, and shockingly, no one said anything with the exception of Sam who started rambling to himself about doing this and saying that, and something about needing to call his momma and pay her a visit as soon as they were wrapped up here.

  
Apparently he wanted his mother to smack him into next week for raising his hand to a little girl. Regardless of the fact that she was enhanced.

Steve was eerily silent throughout the rest of the story. His expression carefully masked as he gave Tony his absolute undivided attention. Finally Tony got to the part where May had been killed in an car accident, and how the kid had been injured and may be blind for the rest of her life, and then the part about the cats.

Tony really seemed to dislike that Siamese. Though Steve couldn't really understand why. The Siamese was a total sweety. Or at least it had been to him anyways. And the other two cats were absolutely adorable.

Tony didn't seem to hate them though.

But he digressed.

To be perfectly honest he was more than a little bit dumbfounded, shocked, awed, and surprised that Tony had taken the steps to adopt the girl if anything happened to her aunt. He simply didn't seem the type to care much for kids, regardless of their age. But the way that the man talked about the girl...

It was more than obvious to Steve that Tony cared about the kid as if she were his own flesh and blood.

Finally after several minutes of strained silence, Steve slowly said. "I'm not exactly sure what to say aside from, wow. And I'm sorry. And congratulations? I...can't really help you with your new feline problem, but I can help with other things. I-If you want anyways."

Tony folded his arms on the table and rested his chin on them as he said tiredly, "Thanks. You'll be an awesome godfather."

Steve snorted before saying, "I don't want to be the kid's godfather, Tony."

"Well I'm not leaving her to Clint," Tony said almost sullenly causing said man to bristle slightly where he sat as Tony then tacked on. "He'll ruin her."

Finally causing Clint to jump up, and slam his hands down on the table as he said, "Excuse you-" Causing Tony to grin slightly as the archer started to chew him out. Much to the amusement of everyone else present.


	9. Chapter 9

By the time Tony had completed telling everyone about Mya- from beginning to end- an hour in a half had already passed and it was nearing dinner time as well as time to introduce his girl to everyone. Figuring that an hour in a half was long enough for Pepper to distract the teen by painting her nails, he asked Friday to let Pepper know that it was safe for her and Mya to return to the common room while Tony called out for everyone's dinner.

Upon her return to the common room, Steve found himself studying the teen as Pepper led the girl in with two of her three new cats in tow, and maneuvered her over to the couch where she was seated so that she didn't accidentally get underfoot as the woman left her alone to go and help Tony.

She was a cute kid. Steve thought as he took notice of her delicate features.

Pepper hadn't just painted her nails while she had been out of the room. Though they were a very nice and eye catching glossy pink color, but she had also taken a straightener to the girls thick, wild mane of curls and straightened it all and then pulled it back into a high ponytail away from the girl's face.

  
Leaving it to tumble down her back and around her neck and shoulders fetchingly. Making Steve's fingers just itch with longing for a piece of paper and a pencil. God knew that the kid would be a freaking fantastic subject for him to sketch whenever he was around to just observe her.

  
Tony had just hung up the phone and was currently checking out her hair and nails when something in his pocket vibrated. Another phone maybe? Whatever it was, Tony nearly jumped a foot in the air before fishing it out and looking at it with a small scowl on his face as he read aloud, "Dude."

"I know that tone," The teen said as she perked up instantly and slowly stood before saying. "That's Ned speak for 'pick up the effing phone'." Tony made a weird little sound as the phone in his hands started to vibrate almost non stop.

"Good lord, what the hell is Ned trying to do? Blow up your cell?" The teen didn't respond to Tony's mildly irritated questions. Probably because she couldn't see what messages he was sending to her phone as Tony read,

**Ned- Dude.**

**Ned- Duuuude.**

**Ned- Hey! Stop ignoring me and answer the fucking phone! We have a serious problem!**

At this point Tony turned his head to look at her for a moment, any amusement he'd felt with the previous messages was gone and a muscle started ticking in his jaw. The next message came though the phone and Tony opened his mouth to read it but for some reason stopped and then simply asked, "Hey, why does it seem as if Ned is panicking about some guy named James?"

The girl's face went almost a sickly shade of white and she snatched the cell from his hands and turned as she took several moments to try and figure out the numbers on the phone with her fingers before she dialed a number and pressed the call button while calling out in a tone that bordered on barely suppressed anger, "Stormy- location."

The little grey kitten had been in Bucky's arms getting a thorough rub down since it had returned with it's mistress, and had been loving every second of it until it heard Tony's kid call out to her. At which point she had quickly jumped down out of Bucky's hands, pausing only long enough to cast a forlorn and slightly apologetic look in his direction and then went hopping across the floor until she reached the teen's feet before she meowed.

"Good girl, now, lead me to the hall." The kitten moved faster than a bunny on meth as it hopped across the common room floor towards the door before then pausing to stand on it's little hind legs and meowed loudly.

The teen wasted no time in following the sound, much to Tony's surprise.

As soon as she reached the door, her friend seemed to finally answer the phone because they could all hear her say, "Ned! What the hell is going on?"

She listened for a moment in the doorway as the other kid seemed to explain something to her before she let out a loud growl, her hand which had been resting on the doorframe, slowly closed around the metal in such a way that the steel groaned loudly in protest as she gripped it in her hand before then quickly saying, "Okay. Okay calm down. You're okay though right? Good. Now here is what your going to do. I'm going to give you the number of two cops at the local Queens precinct. You're going to be calling their direct line, their names are Robert and David Law. Their brothers. They belong to the SVU. Call them and tell them that your a friend of Spiderman's and you need them now. I'll see if I can get Happy to bring me over. Yeah, their number is-" She rattled off the number to her friend and then said in a shaky tone, "I'll see you in a bit."

Everyone had fallen silent at some point during the conversation she was having to eavesdrop on the conversation. They weren't trying to be rude. Honestly they were just curious as to what had shaken her up so badly and merely decided to listen in on her conversation out of habit.

And frankly the fact that something was wrong. Very, _very_ wrong if her reaction to the conversation was anything to go by- simply didn't sit well with any of them.

However as curious as they were to know what was going on, it wasn't their right to ask. So they simply waited until Tony finally said something. And he certainly didn't disappoint. Barely thirty seconds after she had ended the phone call, he was right beside her, his expression worried as he asked, "What is it? What's happened?"

"I need to leave."

"Kid?"

"I need Happy to take me over to Ned's." She said in an anxious tone as Tony reached out and put his hands on her slender shoulders and turned her in his direction and asked her gently to explain what was going on. Why was she so upset? What had happened to her friend?

  
Mya took several moments in an attempt to compose herself before simply saying, "Ned was attacked in his home a little while ago. He's hurt."

"Then he should call the cops-"

"He did. But the person that attacked him has some sort of connects that keep him out of trouble with them. So when Ned called, they laughed at him and hung up."

Tony recoiled in shock upon hearing this. His mind trying to sort out the why of things as he asked how badly Ned was injured. Mya replied that he said he was 'banged up pretty bad' but didn't mention much else until he asked her several more questions. Things like, did Ned know his attacker? Did she? Was that why he had contacted her freaking out?

  
She merely shook her head and kept insisting that she needed to go.

Steve and the others could easily understand her need to leave and check up on her friend, and Tony probably understood her reasons somewhat as well. However he was more than a little bit reluctant to let her go due to her own injuries. Especially since she was still adjusting to not having her sight to rely on.

For all the man knew Ned was being used to lead her into a trap of some sort by one of her enemies. I mean, he didn't actually think that Ned would do something like that, the kid was nothing but loyal when it came to Mya. But if he was being hurt, that was a different matter entirely.

Physical pain could break even the strongest of wills.

Nobody knew that better than Tony did. Which was just another reason why he was reluctant to let Mya leave the safety of the compound. How did he know that someone wasn't waiting to jump her the first chance they got?

"Alright look, I'll send Happy over with some others to check on Ned and-"

_"No."_

"I'm sorry?"

"That's unacceptable. I need to go."

"Why do you need to go?" Tony demanded, starting lose his patience with her. "What is so important about this that you need to go personally when you can't even see to defend yourself if something should happen?"

"Aside from Ned being my friend? My personal responsibility?"

"Yes."

"I can't answer that," She said with a shake of her head before then saying. "There are just some things that you wouldn't understand."

  
"You could try explaining them to me before writing me off." Tony snarked. She merely shook her head again causing him to glower at her before then saying.

"Then you aren't going."

"Dammit Mr. Stark! I don't have time to keep arguing with you. I'm going and that's final!" Mya snapped at Tony, finally having enough of his crap. Causing Tony to gape at her for a moment in shocked disbelief. He didn't understand what was going on, here he was simply trying to get to the heart of matters so that he could figure out a way to help keep her safe and she was acting as if he were her enemy. And to make matters worse, she just directly challenged him.

In front of his friends and guests!

What the hell?

He knew that she had been raised better than this. May would have drilled all kinds of manners into her head from the time that she was just a baby in onesies. So why was she acting like this? He wondered as she carefully pushed him aside as she dialed Happy's number and started walking away from him with that damned grey kitten hopping after her.

Tony was about to call out to her and tell her that she wasn't fucking going anywhere and that was final, when he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see T'challa and Nat standing right beside him.

"We will go with her and see that she and her friend are safe." T'challa said and Tony sighed knowing that he'd lost this fight.

  
"Fine. But if anything happens, call me and I'll be there in less than three minutes."

"We will." Nat assured him as she and T'challa went off after Mya before Tony could even manage to call out that they should tell her that she was grounded for the next week.


	10. Chapter 10

The ride to Ned's house was a quiet one. Not totally silent. Just...quiet. Mostly because Mya was lost in thought and T'challa and Nat were too busy observing her to bother engaging in any form of conversation. Happy on the other hand tried to engage in conversation. Occasionally taking a few minutes or so to ask specific questions in an effort to figure out what they may be walking into.

Mya's responses were curt, and straight to the point. Though it was more than obvious that she didn't want to divulge too much information. Making it easy to tell that she was holding something back from them.

Probably something that she felt they didn't have any business getting into much less asking about. Even after the attack on her friend. Still she wasn't about to let any of them walk into potentially dangerous situation without knowing something.

It would be irresponsible of her to do so. Despite how she felt about things.

"What can you tell me about who attacked Ned?" Happy asked after he had asked her several other questions. He had probably felt that he had beat around the bush enough and simply wanted to get to the heart of things so that he could plan accordingly.

"Not much," Mya said after several heartbeats. "He's in his twenties. A college student studying to be a doctor. He's well off. Maybe not as well off as Mr. Stark, but decently well off. Enough to help buy his way out of trouble if he gets into it-"

"I thought you said that you didn't know much about him, kid. This sounds a bit more than 'much' to me."

"Yeah well, you know the phrase, know your enemy? This guy has been a pain in my neck for well almost three months now."

"Hold up- you sound as if you've actually been keeping track of this bozo." Happy said, sounding none too pleased by the prospect that she had been keeping tabs on a guy with apparently criminally violent tendencies.

"He kind of didn't give me a choice in the matter, Happy." Mya said in an bitter tone that made the man look over his shoulder at her in an effort to see her face. Her expression was carefully masked. Not even a frown marred it to reveal even a little bit of what she was thinking.

"Everyone has a choice kid."

"Not when you cross paths with a classic sociopath."

"Are you fucking kidding me? The guy is a sociopath? Seriously?"

"Not just any kind of sociopath Happy, but one with medical training. He's dangerous and if he's still around Ned's house, he will be armed. Likely with a taser, some drugs, and possibly a gun or knife. So whatever you do once we're there, be careful." Mya said and Happy let out a stream of swears that under normal circumstances would have had the girl sputtering about his language. While Nat and T'challa both frowned at the implications of the girl's words.

"Does Tony know?" Happy finally asked.

"No. I want to keep him as far away from this as possible."

"Mya. He needs to be told." Happy said as he pulled out his cell and started to dial Tony's number when the kid quickly twisted around in her seat and snatched his phone away and snapped it in two and said in a deadly calm tone.

"No." 

"Hey! What the hell did you do that for?"

"I just told you. I want Tony as far away from this as possible."

"That doesn't give you the right to take my phone and snap it in two!" He snapped at her.

"It does if I'm protecting him!" She snarled back at him. Shocking him.

Happy fell silent after that. Though he was still upset about her breaking his phone before he could report anything to Tony, it was obvious that he was trying to understand why she was so anxious about keeping the man from knowing anything about the guy that she had been keeping tabs on.

A few minutes later, they pulled up to Ned's home and Happy was quick to park the car as soon as he spotted the ambulance sitting in the driveway.

Not bothering to wait until he nor Nat or T'challa had climbed out of the vehicle and secured the area- Mya was out of the car and making her way up to the house faster than any of them had anticipated. Apparently following the sound of Ned's voice as he was telling the medics looking at him what had happened.

Huffing as Happy climbed out of the car along with the others, the man started to go after the kid to keep her from being under foot and got almost to the front door when he froze where he stood upon seeing the terrible state that Ned was in.

The boy was more than just a little bit banged up from the looks of him. He was covered in some nasty looking bruises, and blood. A lot of blood. Half of which looked like it was from a head wound somewhere just beyond his hairline, over his left eye. And the rest was from his arm.

Which had been split open from the shoulder almost all the way down to the elbow.

The cut was a deep one, showing bone in some places and severed muscle in others. And the kid was going to have to go to the hospital to have it stitched closed. And all Happy could think as he looked at the kid was that he was thankful that Mya was blind now.  
That girl loved Ned like a brother and she'd lose her mind if she could see him like this.

"Ned!"

"Oh shit, Mya," Ned muttered in a much calmer tone than he'd used on the phone earlier. It wasn't that he particularly felt all that clam, it was more like- the medics had given him a sedative that was already knocking him on his ass. Honestly it was some good stuff. "What the hell happened to your eyes?" Ned blurted out as soon as she reached his side and seated herself next to him on the porch steps.

Mya seemed to inwardly cringe a bit at his question, and muttered. "Sucky birthday present. How are you doing man?"

"I-I'm good." Ned was slurring a bit now. His speech starting to become impaired by the drug that he'd been given.

"You shouldn't lie. I can smell the copper of your blood." Mya said gently. Unable to watch as Ned sort of lifted his injured arm and subtly sniffed it. He couldn't smell anything. Then again, his sinuses were fucked up. Either that or whatever had happened to Mya's eyes had turned her into part blood hound.

He giggled a little bit at that thought. Mya the amazing blood hound. Awooo! 

"What are you laughing about?" She asked him curiously as he let out another giggle.

"You're a spider blood hound!"

Mya was quiet for a second before simply saying, "You're stoned right now, huh?"

"Yes." Ned squeaked as she sighed, knowing that she wouldn't be able to talk to him about what had happened when he was like this. Which meant that she would have to wait a while to see what James had been trying to do by coming after him.

Though she couldn't seem to shake the sudden onslaught of near suffocating dread centered in the middle of her chest as she thought more and more about why James had come after her friend. It wasn't as if he knew that she and Ned were friends. At least she hoped that he didn't.

Though it was possible that he could have at sometime when he was visiting their school, seen them hanging out and put two and two together.

Either way, she'd have to speak to Mr. Stark about the possibility of either assigning bodyguards to Ned and his family for a little while, or sending them out of the country on a vacation.

It may be the only way to make sure that any of them stayed in one piece.


	11. Chapter 11

It was only out of a strange sense of guilt and duty that kept Happy from dragging Mya back to the compound even after the police finally decided to made their appearance. He'd lost track of Nat a little while ago. Whereas T'challa seemed to be amusing himself listening to Ned nervously sing, 'The wonderful thing about Tiggers' while he kept a close eye on Mya.

However as soon as the police officers made their way up to the house, Happy was ready to grab the kid and get the hell out of dodge. Especially since Ned was about to be loaded up into the ambulance and taken to the hospital.

In fact Happy had just moved to take Mya's arm and help her back to the car when one of the officer's swore and practically came jogging over and greeted the kid.

"Parker. W-What the hell happened to your face? Were you hurt here too?" Blinking at the guy as he fretted over the kid, Happy blinked as T'challa shifted his position a little bit to get behind the man, just in case. Close enough to certainly listen to whatever was said, yet far enough to make it seem as if he were merely observing as his partner walked up and took one look at Mya and started fussing too.

"Christ almighty, kid! _Why_ is it always you?" The man practically exclaimed as he framed Mya's face with his hands and started checking her over as if he were worried and needed to see where else she may have been harmed.

Happy exchanged looks with T'challa. Both men were able to pick up on the fact that the men knew Mya in some capacity, they just didn't know what kind.

"Hey Robert. David." Mya muttered as the guy finished checking her over and then sighed. Either in relief or aggravation. Happy wasn't sure which.

"What happened to your eyes kid?" The second officer asked curiously.

Mya shrugged her shoulders a little bit and muttered, "Car accident."

"When'd that happen?"

"Dunno. Days, weeks? It's difficult to tell time like this." Mya said as Happy helpfully supplied, "One week, and sixteen hours." The guy turned his head to look at him and looked as if he had just noticed him or something.

"Er- hello?" Robert said awkwardly as Mya made a huffing sound before then saying, "Happy, this is Robert Law. And the other guy is his brother David. They're officers from the SVU unit here in Queens. Guys- this is Happy Hogan. He's a close friend of Tony Stark's."

"Hello." Robert said again, this time sounding far more certain of himself as he shook hands with Happy while his brother gave the man a nice finger wave before shifting his attention back to Ned whom was still singing that damned song.

"The SVU huh? So what brings you guys out here?" Happy wondered aloud as Ned finally stopped singing and yelled out,

  
"I called em!" While Mya rubbed the bridge of her nose with one of her fingers before saying,

"I know that you two are busy and all, but I figured that Ned could use your services since _you-know-who_ is involved."

"Lord Voldemort?"

"Seriously? This isn't Harry Potter, David." Robert hissed at his brother before turning back to Mya and the others and saying in an apologetic tone, "Sorry. He likes reading Harry Potter sometimes on the job. Especially if it's a slow day."

"No apologies necessary. Who wouldn't like to read Harry Potter on a slow day?"

"Right. So that guy was here, huh?"

"Yeah."

"I see. Did he go after you?"

"No-"

"He came after me!" Ned practically yelled out again as he waved his good arm enthusiastically. Robert made a weird little sound and gently patted Mya's shoulder before saying,

"Alright kid. We'll take it from here. Why don't you and your...friends clear out so we can do our job. If we have any further questions- we'll call or text you and arrange for you to meet us somewhere to share info."

"Thanks Robert," Mya said in a grateful sounding tone before the man walked off to see if he could help his brother get some questions answered before Ned was hauled off.

Once he was gone, Happy reached out and gently took Mya's arm and started walking her back to the car with T'challa close behind. He still didn't know where the hell Natasha was, but considering her background as a former assassin he doubted very much that the woman would get herself into something that she couldn't get out of. So he'd take Mya and king T'challa back to the compound and see if she turned up or called later on.

 

 

Back of the compound-

 

Tony had been in a hell of a funny mood ever since his and Mya's argument before she had left. The second that she had walked off to call Happy, he had grabbed a tub of ice cream from the freezer and seated himself on the couch and started eating it in between muttering and grumbling about, 'What the hell was wrong with kids today?'

This of course is when Steve, Clint and Rhodey tried to tell Tony that Mya hadn't meant to be mean or disrespectful. She was just worried about her friend.

Naturally due to Tony's stubborn nature, everything that was said went in one ear and out the other. Of course that was before he started crying dramatically about how his kid hated him.

Steve abandoned him at this point. He didn't mean too nor want to, but he did.

A moody Tony, he could handle. An emotionally unstable one- not so much.

So he handed Tony off to Clint, whom looked at him like he'd lost his damned mind as Steve beat a hasty retreat. Leaving Clint sitting there with Tony's face against his shoulder.

"My kid hates me!"

"What? No, no, no. The kid doesn't hate you."

"Yes she does!"

"No, no. She doesn't hate you Tony. She was just upset about her friend. Look at things from her point of view."

"I don't wanna!"

"Oh for fuck's sake! What are you an infant? Stop crying already and listen to me," Clint growled as he pushed Tony off of him and then said, "She just lost her aunt right? The last of her flesh and blood kin. And now some jerk has attacked her buddy. It's understandable that she would be irrational. She's already lost one person important to her. Losing her friend so soon after her aunt would probably shatter her whole damn world to pieces. How do you think she would feel then?"

"Lost, alone, isolated, depressed-"

"Well yeah, but she's going to feel that way anyways. At least for a little while," Tony made a weird sound and tried to lay his head back on Clint's shoulder again. But Clint was having none of that shit. "Look my point is, all of those feelings would have magnified ten fold if anything had happened to her friend. And she has already stated that she feels personally responsible for him. Imagine how bad the guilt would be if he was killed and there was something that she knew that she could do to stop it?"

"But she can't fight like she is! She'll get injured or killed!"

"I very much doubt that. She doesn't strike me as the kind of person to just let someone kill them. And despite the lack of her sight, something tells me that she's still one hell of a fighter. Besides, you're her dad now. So stop crying, man up and go help your girl."

Tony stared at him for several moments as he considered his words carefully finally wiping at his eyes and muttering a soft 'thanks' to Clint before getting up to leave the room after he handed the ice cream off to Barton.

He had some stuff to do.

Like investigate what had happened to Ned and possibly assign some people on the Leeds family's protection detail so that the kid and his family didn't get attacked again.


	12. Chapter 12

The moment that the kid returned to the compound, Tony was notified immediately, and left his lab to go and see for himself that Mya was alright. He had just reached the elevator when it opened and Happy, T'challa and Mya stepped out. Well, in his girl's case, it was more like staggered out.

Happy had a firm hold of her arm and was carefully steering her away from the walls and furniture so that she didn't wind up bumping into something and bruising herself and falling.

Tony opened his mouth to ask how Ned was, but upon receiving a weird glare from Happy, quickly shut his mouth and let the man pull Mya along down the hallway to her bedroom where he then deposited her on her bed and then left her for a moment to go and dig through her dresser and get her a clean shirt.

He hadn't really noticed before when they had been at Ned's place, but the boy had apparently managed to bleed a bit onto her shirt and since Tony hadn't noticed the amount of blood and started freaking yet, he'd just have her change her clothing and throw out the shirt before his friend had a chance to.

After all, the man was going to shit kittens when Happy finally decided to report to him about what he'd learned. There was no point in riling him up before then. It would only make things that much worse for the kid later on.

"Here," Happy said as he pressed a new shirt into her hands. "Change into this before coming back out of your room, okay." And then turned and left her to do so while he walked back down the hallway to where Tony was and gave the confused man a dark look before simply saying, "We need to have a talk."

Tony studied him for a moment before curtly nodding his head and followed Happy as he then walked away in the direction as Tony's study as T'challa silently slipped off. No doubt to go inform the others of what had happened and what little bit they had learned.

Once inside of Tony's study, Happy barely waited for the door to close before he turned on him spitting mad and all but shouted at him, "What the fucking hell have you been letting that girl get away with?"

Tony barely had the time to recoil and mutter an unintelligible, "Huh?" When Happy was off on a rant.

"A sociopath Tony! The damned kid has been tracking a fucking _sociopath_! For a freaking month! How the hell did this even happen?" Tony's eyes widened in apprehension at hearing Happy's words, and his heart did this weirdly frantic pounding in his chest as the man continued, "And her friend Ned- Fuck man, the kid _barely_ looked any better than you did after you were rescued by those assholes in Afghanistan! Except you didn't have someone beat you flipping batty, and slice open one of your arms from the shoulder down to the elbow- _to the_ _bone_!"

Tony blanched and cringed away from the man as he finally stopped shouting in his face and simply stood there panting for a moment in an effort to catch his breath before simply saying, "God Tony the boy could have _died_. He could have died, and there wouldn't be anything that any of us could have done to stop it... And Mya- I can only imagine the cluster fuck of thoughts going around in her mind..."

Tony made a high pitched whining sound, his way of agreeing with Happy on that one. He could only imagine what his kid was thinking too. And he'd bet that a lot of her thoughts centered around guilt, and self loathing. All of which was bad. Very, _very_ bad. Especially when it could lead her to go off half cocked, after the guy.

* * *

"A sociopath. You're certain of this?" Steve asked in surprise as T'challa somberly nodded his head in response to the question.

"Yes, my friend. From what she said- she has been tracking him for about a month. Possibly without Stark knowing about her activities."

"And this guy- why would she be trying to keep track of him? Hell, why would he even attack her friend? I'm afraid that I don't understand."

"Nor do I really," T'challa said before slowly tacking on. "But she did mention that she didn't exactly have a choice in the matter. Which leads me to believe that perhaps he somehow found out about her. Or maybe something else more sinister has occurred and she merely isn't talking about it. In fact from her behavior alone, I would say that that is _exactly_ why she is keeping track of him."

Steve frowned and wondered what Tony was going to do now.

The kid couldn't be allowed to go head to head with some creep. Especially in her current state.

* * *

The moment that Happy finished telling (shouting) at him everything that he knew, Tony told him to take a day or so off while he put together a group of bodyguards to protect the Leeds and then left to go check on Mya and make sure that she was okay.

He walked into her bedroom to find her sprawled half on, half off of her bed, on her side with at least two of her cats curled up with her- sound asleep.

Moving closer to her, he took in how tired and worried she looked even in her sleep and made a mental note to do some prying and see if he could learn anything that she had held back from Happy earlier. Who knew, maybe he could erase a little bit of her fears by taking that damned guy she'd been keeping tabs, on out of the picture for her.

Reaching out, he pressed the back of his hand to her cheek and sighed as he muttered, "My poor girl. You take on far too much..." And she did, really. She took on far too much baddies as Spiderman. Too much work at school. It's a wonder that she hadn't killed herself yet from all of the stress she took on.

Removing his hand from her cheek, he took a moment or so to remove her shoes and then put her feet up onto the bed and cover her up, waking the two felines napping with her in the process.

The two looked at him like he'd just brought a dog home. A big mean one that liked to snack on little kitties.

Scoffing softly at those wide eyed looks of- well he didn't know why they were looking at him like that to be honest. It wasn't like he had dislodged them from their resting places or anything. So what did they have to protest about?

You know what, on second thought, maybe he should look into getting a nice, big, mean dog. Hopefully one that could do a better job of protecting his girl than the bunch of lazy fur balls he'd gotten for her. And hopefully one that had no problems chewing on the honey badger if it tried to attack him.

Yeah, that sounded like a plan. He thought to himself as he quietly left the bedroom so that Mya could nap for a bit and went back to his study to place a few calls and see if he could get some extra info on Ned's attacker.


	13. Chapter 13

 

 

 

Three days passed, and in that time Tony had begun to call in favors to collect intel on the guy that had hurt Ned. Mya had gone to visit her friend in the hospital with Clint as a tag along this time, and had come back to the compound sporting a bruise on the side of her face, a split lip and looking more world weary than any sixteen year old should ever look.

Of course when Tony had asked her what had happened, she hadn't told him anything. She'd merely shrugged off his question and walked off with the help of her little black kitten. Which had been fitted with a nice collar, leash and harness earlier that day to finally begin it's training as a service animal.

Tony had watched her leave, noting the way that she looked almost defeated before turning to Clint who was practically vibrating with rage where he stood.

Turns out, visiting Ned had been an bad idea. Especially since his girl blamed herself for what had happened to her friend and had felt the insane need to apologize to Ned and his family for it. Clint told him that the second that she told the boy's parents that it was her fault, Ned's mother lashed out _violently_.

She'd hit Mya three times and then shoved her into the wall really hard all while screaming at her that she was never to come near her son again. He even mentioned that things might have gone much, much worse for Tony's girl if he hadn't stepped between the woman and Mya as soon as he realized that she hadn't intended to stop physically attacking her.

Needless to say, his poor girl didn't leave her room again for several more days. Not even to come out and get herself some food.

And to say that Tony was absolutely livid at the turn of events, would be a gross understatement. It had taken some _very_ careful negotiations on Pepper's part to prevent him from putting Ned's mother in jail for striking a minor.

After that, they had all played the waiting game.

That first day, Tony could be seen on occasion, standing outside of the girl's bedroom, simply trying to coax her out as she had cried. After that, the rest of them had decided to try and help get her to come out too.

It hadn't worked. But at least after day three she had finally worn herself out so much from crying that it no longer mattered if she came out or not.

It would take another two days before she would finally leave her bedroom for any reason at all. And when she finally did, it wasn't for very long. Only long enough to grab a sandwich or something, tell Tony that she was alive- and then to walk off again.

To be perfectly honest, the week afterwards wasn't much better for the kid since it was the week that she finally laid her aunt to rest. Everyone attended the service to show their support.

Tony had had Pepper help Mya clean up some, grab a shower, style her hair, and so on before putting her in a nice black three piece dress outfit consisting of a crisp white button up shirt, an ankle length skirt, a black ribbon that was tied into place around Mya's neck, and a jacket.

Her long dark hair had been straightened again. And pulled back into twin ponytails on both sides of her head, and dressed up a bit with more black ribbons. The only pieces of jewelry that she had worn to the service, were a pair of old, yet very well maintained white pearl earrings that had once belonged to her aunt.

Tony had dressed himself as if he were going to the funeral of an old friend. And once the service had started, it was easy to see why. Especially when he had gotten up in front of everyone to give a unforgettable eulogy that had everyone both in stitches in one moment, and in tears the next.

All in all it was a lovely service.

And when it was time to head out to the graveyard, everyone piled into one of Tony's limo's and let the driver drive them all out to the grave site where Tony had carefully led Mya through the cemetery. Only pausing once to catch her when she had tripped on an old grave stone that he'd not seen jutting out of the ground due to it being covered in tall grass and weeds.

Upon reaching the grave site, Tony stood behind Mya as her aunt's urn was placed in a little hole in the ground and quietly buried. Mya didn't say anything. To be honest it was as if she were numb to what was going on around her.

Not that Tony nor anyone else seemed to blame her any.

Between the accident that had killed her aunt, losing her sight, the attack on her friend, being forbidden to ever see and talk to him again, and now laying her aunt to rest- it was a wonder that she hadn't had some sort of nervous breakdown yet.

Once they finally returned to the compound some time later, Tony surprised everyone with an buffet dinner, some nice wine- well, soda in Mya's case, and he and everyone else sat down to listen to Mya talk about some of the things she and her aunt used to do when she was a kid.

 

 

 

 


	14. Chapter 14

Later that night Tony stood in Mya's bedroom doorway, simply staring at his girl as she went about preparing for bed. Everyone else had meandered off to seek their own beds a little while ago, each feeling tired after the long day that they had all had.

She'd just taken her long hair down from the twin ponytails when he'd decided to finally step into the room.

Absently picking up her hair brush on along the way and quietly sat down on the bed and said gently, "Come here sweetheart." As he reached out and gently snagged her wrist in one of his hands and lightly tugged her down on the bed in front of him, and then placed his hands on her slender shoulders to help position her right where he wanted her before he picked up the brush and slowly started to brush her hair.

"You know, I used to do this for my mom when she was sad or upset," He said as he pulled the brush through her hair, working out the tangles that she'd somehow gotten. "My dad wasn't so great when it came to emotions. Or support of any kind. So whenever my mom was upset, I'd drop everything and go looking for her after I stopped by my parent's bedroom to grab her late mother's comb. I used to find her holed up in her room, most of the time she was crying her heart out for some reason or another. And I would sit behind her and just comb her hair for a while. She told me once when I was a kid that her mom used to do the same thing for her when she was a kid. So she found the whole...grooming thing soothing."

"You sound like you miss her."

Tony hummed before setting her brush aside so that he could run his finger's though her silken hair before saying simply, "I do miss her. Especially in times of difficulty- I can tell you this though, she would have _adored_ you and spoiled you rotten."

"Well if she was anything like you, I probably would have adored her too."

Tony's lips quirked a bit as she slipped his arms around her and pulled her back against his chest and then rested his chin on top of her head before asking, "Did you know that you're my girl?"

"Huh?" Mya said tiredly as he smiled to himself.

"May and I had an agreement, that if anything ever happened to her- I'd take care of you. When she passed, I didn't waste any time. I couldn't take the chance that child services would be called and you'd be taken from me. So I signed the legal documents needed and had them filed within the same hour."

"You adopted me?" She asked, disbelief and wariness coloring her tone. Tony merely hugged her tighter to him and made another humming sound as he kissed the top of her head.

"That's right, squirt. You're now a Stark, baby girl."

Mya didn't say anything in response. Really what could she hope to say. She'd never had a father before, just as Tony had never had a kid before. They were both in uncharted territory here. However now that she thought about things, his behavior towards her lately was making a bit more sense.

How blind had she been to not see that he had so easily slipped into the role of a parent or guardian? Sure she had been a mite preoccupied with stuff as of late- but she still should have realized that _something_ was up.

Tony must have thought that she was upset about him adopting her due to her lack of comment about it. He slowly, reluctantly began to release her and move so that he could leave when she suddenly asked, "You sure you want me as a kid?" The question caused him to freeze up and look at her oddly in the semi darkness of her room before frowning and asking curiously,

"Why wouldn't I want you as my kid?"

She took a moment to reach up to the bandages covering her eyes and lightly touched them as she responded with, "Because I'm defective."

Never had three mere words had more of an impact on his emotions than those did. Anger and sadness warred within him for several seconds before he bit out in a fierce tone, from between clenched teeth, "You are _not_ defective!"

It was an easy thing for him to say, Mya thought to herself almost bitterly. He was still intact. Whereas there was no way of knowing if she would ever physically be the same again.

"You are not defective," He said in a much softer tone this time. "I don't care if you're blind. Deaf. Mute. Missing one or even all of your limbs- those things do _not_ define you as a person. The people that care about you, help to shape you, and the people that you help and help shape in return- those are the things that define you as a person. So I'll say it again, and this time you're going to really listen to me. _You. Are. Not. Defective_."

"Then why do I feel as if I am?" She asked soft softly that he almost didn't hear her.

Tony had no answer for that question. Not verbally at least.

Instead he merely settled himself back into his former position behind her and pulled her back into his arms and simply held her until her breathing evened out and she finally fell asleep. After which, he laid her down on the bed and carefully tucked her in before then settling himself beside her, figuring that he shouldn't leave her alone just in case she woke up in the middle of night needing him or something.

Biting back a yawn, he made himself comfortable and started to close his eyes when he felt little pawed feet slowly making their way up to where his pillow was. Cracking an eye open, he stared at that damnable Siamese for a moment before it walked on and curled up behind Mya's neck while the two kittens meandered up to where he was.

One, the black kitten he supposed, curled up on his chest while the little grey one flopped over onto his arm and then somehow managed to wedge it's little body between his arm and torso and started purring.

That was the last thing that he remembered before dozing off.


End file.
